EGYPT: Traffic chokes the streets of Cairo once again, but military road blocks remain and residents struggle to recover from the worst political bloodletting to rock Egypt in recent history
Record ID:
862630
EGYPT: Traffic chokes the streets of Cairo once again, but military road blocks remain and residents struggle to recover from the worst political bloodletting to rock Egypt in recent history
- Title: EGYPT: Traffic chokes the streets of Cairo once again, but military road blocks remain and residents struggle to recover from the worst political bloodletting to rock Egypt in recent history
- Date: 19th August 2013
- Summary: PICTURE OF SISI ON FRONT PAGE
- Embargoed: 3rd September 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- City:
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: Conflict,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAIHU0IB2VQV7S1OYYP8TABLI3
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Traffic is once again choking the roads and bridges of Cairo and residents are trying to get on with their lives.
On Monday (August 19), Egyptians tried to return to their normal lives as the political stand-off, that killed more than 700 people last week, continues.
Military vehicles and troops closed off main roads and junctions, mainly the one leading to the main Tahrir Square - the epicenter of mass demonstrations which led Egypt's army to oust the elected Islamist leader on July 3.
The government has declared curfew for a month which start at 7pm andat 6am.
Banks are open but only for three hours.
At 8 am, some shops and businesses were open but many remained closed.
In downtown Cairo, residents said they were concerned that the crisis will take a long time to resolve.
One man said he had faith in the army's ability to protect the country.
''The Egyptian army, not just Sisi, the national army, the free army is the one that guards the interests of the people. Not like Mursi who sold the country to Israel and Turkey. How could the Muslim Brotherhood do this? Hosni Mubarak in 30 years did not do what Mursi did in one year,'' he said referring to the President Mohamed Mursi, whose ouster by the army last month set off the latest crisis.
Massive protests against Mursi, a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, took place on June 30. On July 3, the powerful army chief and defence minister Abdel Fattah Sisi ousted him from power.
The Brotherhood defied the move and rounded up hundreds of thousands of its supporters in the streets arguing that the army had no right to oust Egypt's first democratically elected president.
The Brotherhood's month-long sit-in in two Cairo squares were violently removed last week by the army and police force.
''The situation in Egypt now does not work. We are afraid. We are all collectively depressed. We don't know what to do. We, the Egyptians, don't know what to do. All day long, we are watching TV news bulletins, we don't want to work, we don't want to play with our children. We have lost the joy of life,'' said Iman.
At least 850 people have died since last Wednesday (August 14) in clashes pitting followers of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against the army-backed government in the worst bloodletting in Egypt's modern history. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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